Brooklyn Pizzeria Adds, Then Promptly Removes, Three Percent Obamacare Surcharge

One pizzeria in Brooklyn decided to make it loud and clear that the Affordable Care Act's mandatory health care was putting a serious dent in their pockets. Franny's Pizza caused a stir by announcing a three percent surcharge added to every customer's bill to cover the costs of employee healthcare.

At first, owner Francine Stephens said that she had wanted to be upfront about the rising costs of her bottom line.

"This is a cost that we cannot absorb without going out of business," she told The Daily News. "We're quite sensitive to raising prices too much so we wanted to offer transparency,"

However, in response to customer complaints, Franny's has decided to scrap the original Obamacare tax, and will raise prices instead, They have released the following statement:

"It is appearing that many of our guests are viewing the proposed ACA surcharge as anti-Obamacare, which is so unfortunate, because it is in fact, quite the opposite! Through this surcharge, Franny's is embracing Obamacare. Clearly our intent was misunderstood and our guests have made it clear that they would prefer to see higher prices as opposed to a surcharge. We've always worked in the service of our staff and guests and will amend our prices accordingly while removing the surcharge entirely.

Initially, we thought, before we start putting $22 pizza on the menu, let's be transparent about what that money is actually going towards. However, it seems given the stated preference of our guests as well as the potential for misinterpretations into the future, we will retract the surcharge and reconfigure our menu pricing instead.

We hold it essential to who we are as a company to take care of our staff — and our guests. We are listening to you all."